Obamacare fosters split personality

Friday

Apr 4, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Clive McFarlane TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

We would all like to see our lives governed by sound reasoning and understanding, but in practice we often allow ourselves to be driven by self-deceit. What we accept as truth and wisdom is frequently based less on facts and more on what we want to believe and achieve.

Our divergent views on the Affordable Care Act are a case in point.

When President Barack Obama promised that if you had insurance you liked, you could keep it under the Affordable Care Law, he was not operating on facts. It was what he wanted to believe. The facts were that some insurance companies would use the law as an excuse not to provide adequate and affordable health coverage.

Had the president calmed his enthusiasm for the law a bit, he would have known this.

The same is true for many of those who claim they don't like Obamacare. Their lack of support is not based on factual observations relative to the impact of the law, but on what they have been told about it, or what they want to believe about it.

Last year, for example, Comedian Jimmy Kimmel generated some laughs when he interviewed a number of individuals who said that while they were adamantly against Obamacare, they definitely supported the Affordable Care Act.

Here is how one interview went.

"So you disagree with Obamacare?"

"Yes, I do."

"Do you think insurance companies should be able to exclude people with pre-existing conditions?"

"No."

"Do you agree that young people should be able to stay on their parents' plans until they're 26?"

"They should be able to, yes."

"Do you agree that companies with 50 or more employees should provide healthcare?"

"I do."

"And so, by that logic, you would be for the Affordable Care Act?"

"Yes."

This split personality over the law is also reflected in conservative states like Kentucky, where almost 400,000 people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act through that state's marketplace. About 75 percent of the Kentucky enrollees did not have health insurance prior to signing up, state officials said.

Yet, despite the enrollment numbers, polls have shown that some 49 percent of Kentucky voters said they want to repeal the law.

Much of the confusion around the Affordable Care Act is a derivative of the bad press Republicans and their billionaire supporters have paid millions to create.

Indeed, it seems almost a miracle that after its flawed rollout and the unrelenting efforts of Republicans to sabotage and repeal it, the law's enrollment period will end this month with more than 7 million people signing up for coverage.

That figure is not counting the millions more who have enrolled for coverage under Medicaid, or the more than 3 million young adults who are now covered by their parents' health plans.

Of course, there is a difference between being ignorant about the law and manipulating it for personal gain. Opposition to the law, for example, is a required qualification to run as a conservative in some districts.

It is not surprising then, even with the law's enrollment numbers, that House Republican Paul Ryan would still find it necessary to produce a budget that calls for it to be repealed.

Similarly, it shouldn't be surprising that a number of Democrats who believe in the law are refusing to embrace it as they run for office in conservative districts.

It's a shame, but the truth is that in politics, deception and obfuscation provide a faster, more addictive track to personal achievement and financial reward than an allegiance to the facts.